Pink Umbrella
by Aracalien
Summary: Oneshot A short story about how Hagrid might have gotten that infamous pink umbrella.


Disclaimer: No, I don't own it.

**Pink Umbrella**

Hagrid sat and waited in Madam Grandpare's Shoes Of All Sizes. It was a remote little shop somewhere near Wales; it was the only store that could supply young Rubeus with shoes that didn't cut off the circulation in his feet.

"I'm sorry Rubeus," said the tiny little witch that had makeup, at least an inch thick, applied to her face. "we gave you our largest size only two months ago. How could your feet have grown three sizes in a couple of months?"

Hagrid shrugged, and looked down at his enormous feet. Now what? At least, he thought, his father would not be spending anymore money on Hagrid's behalf for new things-his never-ending growth spurt had cost the poor man nearly a fortune.

Perhaps, Hagrid thought, he could make himself a pair of shoes. It didn't look that hard. He could go hunting and maybe stitch a few moleskins together. It would have to do.

The ten-year-old heaved a sigh and trudged back out the door.

"How'd it go, Rubeus?" asked his father. Already Hagrid had almost doubled the height of him.

Hagrid didn't know how to answer.

* * *

It was only a week before Hagrid was to go to Hogwarts that his father told him.

"Son," he had said. "I've never told you before-just wanted you ter have a normal childhood I suppose. But now that yer going off to school, I want you ter know. Rubeus…your mother was a giantess; but before you go jumping ter conclusions, she was a lovely lady. Never met a nicer woman in my life.

"I was hiking through the mountains; trying ter get a picture of a giant for the book I was writing-_Human or Humanoid? _I wanted to find out if they were all that mean, or jus' misunderstood. O'course, I nearly got my head walloped off when I tried ter get near one of 'em without giving him summat. But the only thing I had was a pink umbrella-I brought it along ter keep the sun off my back, but it was so thin and worn that it was jus' a pain ter drag along.

But lo and behold, one of the giantesses, tha's yer mom, spotted me walking with it jus' outside of her camp. She liked that umbrella so much tha' she dragged me, by the foot, over to the Grog and demanded that we be wed. At least, tha's what I got out of it. O'course I didn't know I was married until too late-and they'll kill yeh if you want to end it. So we were stuck together.

"But over time I became more an' more fond of her, an' she still liked the umbrella. She used ter stroke it when she thought I wasn' lookin'. But then one day, while I was out gatherin' berries for our supper, a loud roar sounded not a mile away. Now by tha' time I was nearly fluent in the language of the Giants, an' what them males were roarin' wasn't Christmas carols. They wanted meat. An' from the beginning they didn' like me 'cause I wasn' their kind. So I had to flee. I was sorry for leavin' yer mom, but there was nothing else I could do?

"I snuck back into our cave and took you out of yer cradle. You were jus' a newborn then, barely two feet long. I knew yer mother couldn't have taken care of you and givin' you a normal life, so I snuck you out with me.

I meant to leave that pink umbrella behind, for yer mom, but as I was just coming out of their valley, it hit me in the back of my head. Half-dazed I turned around and it was her-Oless. That was yer mother's name. She turned around and stomped back down into the valley. I never saw her again."

Hagrid was silent. So his mother was a giantess-he should have guessed it from the time that he had been too big to fit into normal kid-sized clothes or sit in a chair properly. Everything was too small.

His father looked at him intently. When his son didn't look up from the floor he sighed. "I thought I'd give yeh this-an early birthday present you might call it."

Hagrid opened the box that was handed to him-it was the pink umbrella. The edges were frayed and moth-eaten, the fabric full of holes. It would be useless if it happened to rain, but it was the best present he had ever gotten-something that had a connection to his mother, even if the events that it caused were a bit strange.

(A/n: Just something that I thought of while re-reading the Philosopher's Stone. I'm not sure it's that good, but it was fun to write. Please review!)


End file.
